EX1R and PMW350 First Details
 

Sony's offical site on the new EX350 and EX1R
http://www.sonybiz.net/biz/view/Show...=1166605171707

Very interesting. No pricing as yet today?

The new SxS cards sound the same thing as the cheaper P2 cards. Work the same but limited lifespan. Hopefully they won't have a built in timer to automatically "turn off" after 5 years regardless of how much they have been used.

Steve,

The Sony meeting I was a part of said the new cards will have about 1/10 the read/write life of the regular SxS cards.

The pricing I got was about 20K USD for the body with the newly designed Fujinon lens and right at 18.5K USD for a kit without lens. In either case, the unit is supplied with viewfinder and microphone. It's the same stereo mic that came with the other 3xx disc based cameras.

-gb-

$20,000 with lens and viewfinder, ready to go, is a bargain. Factor in street pricing and we could take another $2000 off that price.

Agreed Steve, it is the 'mid-priced' camera many users have been asking for.

-gb-

2/3rd inch chips. Will be superb in low light. Shame it's not 4:2.2 50Mbs but a Nano can sort that one.

You are right its designed to fill a large hole in the market.

Like to know two things:
when will it be available to buy and will it be the same price as the EX1 on release with a reduction in the price of "old" ex1's.

Looks quite good, but CMOS and 4:2:0. If it's a HD "replacement" or HD companion for the DSR450/570, how will it perform in news shooting....when about all the stills guys fires of their flashes?

Ofcourse 4:2:0 can be solved with a nano flash at the back, but that's one more thing to go wrong in the field...to be a bit picky.

What's also interesting now is how Panasonic see the cmos use, will they respond with CMOS in any higher priced camera than the Hpx300?

You can't seriously think they would put the 50mb 4:2:2 codec on this camera? That's reserved for the higher end XDCAM line. I think the Nanoflash or equivalent is a good way around that problem.

As for news gathering, I don't think this is the market the PMW-350 is aimed at. Not that it won't be used for that purpose by someone. It would have the benefit of reaching into the darkness with those 2/3 CMOS chips and pulling out a decent image.

-gb-

No, not from Sony! Excluding the 4:2:2 codec is clearly a business decision rather than a technical limitation. I can see why they've done it but I think it is a real shame. I think it means they will just sell a load of these cameras and give away potential market to the Nano Flash. If they added 4:2:2 as a £500 add on, they could squeeze a fair bit more in profit from this camera.

Well, we just have to wait and see what Panasonic does...if the Avc-i on a 8 grand 1/3" is any direction they aim for I suspect 4:2:2 10bit all over their P2 range at some point.

Actually I was a bit surprised that the PMW-350 futured 2/3" chips, not 1/2". Very nice to get the performance needed in low light over 1/2" and 1/3". And even more surprised they included a lens with autofocus...

Sony Product Detail Page - PMWEX1R
I love it when people hide things on websites :)

I read somewhere that the new clipbrowser will have a tool to take care of those half screen flashes. Can someone confirm this?

Warren Kawamoto:

Taken from XDCAM-USER.com

"Talking of lightning and flashes, there will be a new version of the Clip Browser software with the ability to automatically correct partial frame exposure or “flash bands” caused by strobe lights."

Yes, that is true. Sony have elected to address the problem outside the camera at this point.

-gb-